Fumbling Towards Clarity: A dojo romance
by Kei Masaki
Summary: A Tenjo Tenge fanfic: After a disappointing Valentine's Day, Takayanagi receives an invitation to spar, and the result is nothing like he expected.


_Clarity_: A _Tenjo Tenge_ dojo romance by Kei Masaki

Warning: Mild oblique WAFF, very very brief fan service. Not terribly much in the way of spoilers. This was written by someone whose familiarity with TT is limited to the first volume of the manga and little else. Apologies if this clashes terribly with established canon, but it's just a fic, so you should really just relax. _Tenjo Tenge _is owned by people who are not me, and would probably be less than pleased with what I've done with their characters. Maa, ii ka.

The title comes from John Mayer's "Clarity", which was looped during the fic's writing.

* * *

February 14.

Valentine's Day.

And if there was one thing Takayanagi Masataka hated, it was Valentine's Day.

He grumbled softly to himself as he walked the halls, which seemed to be filled with girls with nothing more on their minds than shoving chocolates at the boys they liked. There had been nothing waiting in his locker when he'd arrived at school, and he didn't have much hope for after.

The second-senior member of the juken club was abruptly jostled to one side by a black-clad blur with upswept bleached-blond hair, with little more than a grunted apology.

"Seiichirou-sama! Come back here and take my chocolates!" Dead on Blondie's heels was Natsume Aya, lovely and busty as always, obsessively chasing her self-proclaimed fiance and to hell with anyone who got in the way. Today, that anyone was a hapless freshman who paid for his trouble with a smashed nose.

Takayanagi sighed and watched her dash past, his eyes automatically angling for the best view up her skirt. Once she rounded the corner, he shook his head.

It was odd, this feeling he'd had for Aya since the first moment he'd laid eyes on her. Even throughout her fixation on Nagi, he had always watched after her wistfully.

Until recently.

Takayanagi hadn't told anyone – who was there for him to tell? But somehow, the burning longing he had for Aya had started fading, slowly but steadily. And he wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing...

_I hope that bastard realizes how lucky he is, having her – having _someone_ – chasing after him,_ he thought wryly.

_Am I the only one in the school without someo – iie, cut that out, Masataka._

Not for the first time, the thought of transferring occurred to him. It seemed like a good idea... if not from the flak he'd get from his family, to say nothing of Maya-san – _Maya-san, na..._ he smirked to himself. In a fucked-up kind of way, if he left, it'd be her he missed most, maybe...

Still, there really wasn't anything here for him beyond fighting and more fighting. And he was getting really sick of Valentine's Days that began and ended with an empty locker.

_Could a different school really be any worse?

* * *

_

As the rest of the students filed out of the school, laughing and joking – many paired off and hand-in-hand – Takayanagi approached his locker, doing his best to hide trepidation behind a mask of boredom. He flipped the compartment open, and peered inside.

Inside lay his school bag, his outside shoes... and an envelope, sitting upon the shoes. He felt heat rise to his cheeks, and nervous fingers tore open the envelope.

A minute later, the envelope's contents were thrown back into the locker in disgust.

"Kuso..." It took him a minute to get back to calmness. "Damned taichou..." He yanked his shoes out of the locker and donned them in a hurry, slapping the door shut and crumpling the letter in one hand. He tossed it in the burnable garbage bin on his way out. As the letter hit the pile of other papers, it uncrumpled, enough to read: _To Takayanagi Masataka: Report to the Natsume dojo this evening, at 7 p.m., for additional training. From Natsume Maya_.

* * *

Takayanagi tugged at his T-shirt's collar as he stepped up the walkway. Maya-san might have ruined his evening of silent, solitary brooding, but he was damned if he was going to give her the courtesy of dressing nicely.

He waited after he rang the doorbell, thinking and brooding. It almost startled him when Maya, in her more normal chibi form, answered the door, smirking.

"Right on time, Takayanagi. Glad you didn't wear anything nice." She jerked her head in the direction of the hallway and strode down it without looking back. He scrambled to follow her. "Well, taichou, you _did_ say 'training'..."

"That's right, I did, didn't I?" She pushed open the dojo doors and snapped on the lights, showing the training hall to be devoid of life.

Takayanagi looked around quickly. "Where's Aya-chan?"

It was probably his imagination, the slight stiffness to her answer. "Oh, she's probably out, driving Nagi up the wall."

"Ahh." He relaxed slightly; that was just as well, sparing him both her distracting presence and her hostility towards him for being Nagi's "rival".

"Well, c'mon." Maya tapped her foot impatiently from the center of the dojo, and Takayanagi hurried in after her.

"All right, Takayanagi. You've come a long way from where you started. But you've still got things to learn. I'll make this simple for you tonight: hit me. One punch, slipping through my guard. Do that, and you'll even get a prize." She eyed him speculatively, as if gauging his ability to do this.

"A prize." He met her speculative glance with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, you don't get your ass kicked by me for fighting below your abilities." Her body expanded before his eyes, bringing her into her curvy, voluptuous "natural" form, and full lips quirked upward in amusement. "Think you're up to it?"

Takayanagi stared at her for a long moment, his eyes fixed on hers, his body uncomfortably aware of hers. Then, a strange calm started settling over him.

_Mou ii, Masataka. No rivalries, no would-be lovers, here. Just the Art. And if you're really thinking about transferring, what does it matter what happens here tonight?_

His own mouth turned upward in a death's-head grin. "Yeah, Maya-san, I'm up to it."

"Good." Her eyes said that she'd expected nothing less. "Make me bleed."

Before she finished the short sentence, he was hurtling at her, his eyes narrowed and a rapid-fire combination of punches flying at her face.

She hopped back, her movements almost like she was grooving on the dance floor, still smirking. "Close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades..."

He grunted instead of speaking in reply, snapping up a rapid kick at her head and following that with a flying kick. The first one missed by inches and the second grazed her bangs.

He never saw the roundhouse kick that sent him flying across the room. He managed to catch his feet several meters from the wall, gritting his teeth as he skidded on sock-clad feet.

"Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy." Maya advanced towards him, a slightly pedantic tone to her voice. She neatly hopped over his leg sweep and kicked him over onto his back. She looked down at him, resting one foot on his chest and shaking her head dramatically.

_Chikusho, I got impatient... hmm, so she wears blue la – iya, now is _not_ the time to notice _that

"That was a good start, but you got sloppy too quickly, Takayanagi." Her smirk took on a sudden, cruel edge. "No wonder Aya prefers Nagi."

Takayanagi's vision red-shifted, and Maya was abruptly hopping back through the air, eyebrows raised. He was back on his feet, with no real recollection of having risen, and he was trembling.

"Did I touch a nerve?" Her voice held the same edge from earlier, clearly to taunt him.

He launched himself at her, his punches now driven by fury. The first series grazed her top, doing little more than spilling more cleavage into visibility. The second actually started driving her backwards across the dojo. The smirk on her face was replaced by a look of concentration, as if she was now having to take the fight seriously.

_Serves you right, taichou. Damn you. Damn you and Aya-chan and Nagi. Damn tou-san and Mitsuomi-nii and everyone else at Toudou Gakuen. And damn me most of all. _Another kick snapped away the sash holding her top together, and her impressive breasts spilled out in their natural glory. He couldn't have cared less.

_Damn damn damn damn damn..._

"Whoa there, Takayanagi." Maya's voice battered into his ears, the sardonic tone tempered with curiosity. "Who're you fighting, me or the whole world?"

"Urusai." The word emerged with a guttural tone that surprised even him, and Maya's eyes narrowed. "Sou ka. Fine, then." She abruptly moved forward, her moves flying right through his, and he grunted again as his body registered the hits, impacts that would have sent a normal person to the hospital for major reconstructive surgery. "Is this what you want, Takayanagi?"

"You have no idea." All at once, he felt his fury starting to subside – no, wait, that wasn't quite accurate... it was more like he felt himself stepping through it, the calm that had possessed him earlier returning again.

He dug in his heels, ending his recession, and he absorbed her blows as if they were puffs of air. They would undoubtedly be felt later, and it would take more than a few swigs of the whiskey hidden in his room to relax enough for sleep, but now was all that mattered.

_Mou ii. Now is all that matters. Not Aya-chan, not Nagi, not the fact that your locker was empty today. This fight, this is all that matters. You realized this before, now it's time to remember. Nothing but the Art, nothing but the match. She realizes this. Don't insult her and yourself._

Takayanagi's eyes narrowed, and he started juking and swerving, letting punches carom off him or barely miss him. He felt himself virtually dancing across the dojo floor, without Maya's offhand grace but with enough ease to make his normal movements seem like slow motion. The look on Maya's face – one of pure, unfettered concentration – was all the acknowledgement of his performance he needed.

And then it happened. A split-second's hesitation on her part, setting up for a punch that might well send him through the wall. Takayanagi's fist flew first, and true, catching her in the left eye.

For a moment, time seemed to freeze. He felt his jaw drop in utter, utter shock, and felt sure that her expression was an accurate mirror of his own. Then the moment was past, and he felt her fist graze his cheek, leaving the slightest trace of dull pain, and she tumbled over like a great redwood. Her impact echoed through the dojo, and the silence that followed was all the more loud.

"A-a-ano..." Takayanagi felt sudden heat rush to his face. Not heat from embarassment or arousal, but from sheer... whatever it was, it mixed fear and concern and a complete sense of "holy fuck, what the hell did I _do_!"

After a long moment Maya's eyes opened slowly. She winced slightly as she opened the left one, and pulled herself into a sitting position. Her eyes – with a shiner right under the left – fixed onto Takayanagi.

And she smiled.

"Taichou..." Takayanagi stared at her.

"That was one helluva hit, Takayanagi. You didn't quite make me bleed, but the shiner'll do for now." The sardonic tone returned, and Takayanagi started at the fact; for a moment, he'd forgotten its usual presence. "Aya'll give you hell about it tomorrow, though."

"Aya-chan always gives me hell." The words were out before he could stop them, and he inwardly cringed at the expectation of onrushing guilt for even thinking that. The shock on his face when it didn't arrive was rather obvious to Maya, who simply nodded and bounced to her feet. She landed on the balls of her feet, once again in chibi mode.

Takayanagi bowed instinctively. "Domo arigato, Maya-san."

Maya returned the bow. "Dou itashimashite."

There was another long moment of silence. Takayanagi slumped his shoulders and exhaled. His body was already starting to ache from the brief but brutal abuse, but...

...he felt better.

_It figures,_ he thought ruefully. _This probably _is_ the best Valentine's Day I've ever had_.

"Mou, Takayanagi!" Maya's voice brought him back to himself, and he refocused on her impatient face. "Hai?"

"I'm hungry. And I don't really feel like eating alone. Stick around, why don'cha?" She was looking up at him expectantly.

"Hai" was out of his mouth before he could even think about it. _Good grief, I can't even say no to her. Wonder why...

* * *

_

In his more romantic fantasies, girls would prepare fancy, delicious meals for Takayanagi on Valentine's Day, and would adoringly sit in his lap feeding him.

In the real world, Natsume Maya broke out instant ramen and cola, and plopped down on the tatami beside him, attacking her meal with gusto. Takayanagi managed a wry smile at the difference between reality and fantasy and ate his own meal, surprised at how hungry he was.

"Na, Takayanagi, stop spacing out on me." Maya gave him a wry smile of her own.

"Sumanu, taichou." He chuckled and kept eating.

"So, how many did you get today?"

He paused with chopsticks and noodles halfway to his mouth. "How many?"

"Chocolates, letters, love confessions, offers of sex..." She laughed at his reaction to the last, dropping the noodles and barely catching them with the sticks before they hit the mats.

"None." He slurped up the caught noodles, congratulating himself on keeping his voice casual.

"None at all?" The tone of her voice was hard to place, aside from a definite hint of surprise.

"None at all." The casualness took more work this time.

"Heh..." She slurped at her noodles.

It took an act of will to keep his hands steady, and he concentrated on the ramen. At least it was high-quality instant ramen. The cola could have stood to be colder, though.

"Maa, ii ka." Her voice was a touch thoughtful.

"Maa, ii ka?" He repeated.

"There's no need to rush about it, anyway." She slurped up the last of the noodles. "You've got plenty of time after high school to fall in love, and get married, and have kids and a house and a thirty-year mortgage. One of those days, you'll wish you were back in high school and single again."

He couldn't suppress the laugh that bubbled up. At her querying expression he answered, "Y'know, Nagi was right. Sometimes you _do_ sound like an old geezer."

"Mou..." She seemed more amused by his response than anything else. He took another took at her. Natsume Maya carried a lot on her shoulders, so it was unsurprising that her reaction was to meet everything and everyone with sarcasm and skepticism.

"Heh heh, better cut that out or someone'll think you have a lolicon."

He felt a vein popping on his forehead and snarled, with only partially-feigned heat, "Who the hell're you calling a lolicon?"

Maya laughed and shifted around to look at him better.

Takayanagi raised an eyebrow. "Nan da?"

"Something's on your mind, isn't it?" Her face took on a reproving look with just a hint of concern. "I need you to be sharp, Takayanagi. Pining for Aya won't do anyone any good."

"Che'... I'm not pining for her. Not so much, anyway..." It was strange to speak those words, Takayanagi thought, and even stranger to feel the truth behind them.

"Good." That single word carried an odd amount of satisfaction, to his ears. "But what's bugging you now?"

"I just don't like Valentine's Day."

"Because you didn't get anything in your locker." The expression on Maya's face told him how silly she thought that was, but her voice, at least, was devoid of derision. He shrugged. "Yeah, that bothered me some."

"So you _are_ in a hurry to have the wife and kids and mortgage? Well, whatever turns you on..." She took a swig of the cola.

"Don't be stupid! I just..." _What exactly do I want?_ "I just don't like being single right now."

"Meh. Being single ain't a picnic for me either, right now." Maya swallowed the cola in one gulp and set down the paper cup. She then slapped him on the back, with far more force than one would credit her chibi form with having. "Relax, Takayanagi. There must be some girls in school who'd give it up to you."

Takayanagi hunched forward, barely feeling the slap. Was it true? Maybe, but... "...to tell you the truth, taichou, I've been thinking about transferring."

"Nani!" Maya was suddenly in his face, eyes blazing, and it was all he could do not to fall over cowering. "Why!"

"Because..." _Because I don't have anything here except fight after fight._ "Because... with Nagi and Bob and Aya-chan, you really don't need me. And the club is the only thing I have at Toudou."

"Baka! Of course the club needs you! You're the strong right arm, Takayanagi. I won't be there forever, you know, and you're going to be running things after I graduate - "

"_If_ you graduate this year," Takayanagi noted wryly, unable to resist bearding the lioness in her own den.

"...urusai." Maya glared at him. "You're not coward enough to walk away from Toudou just because you can't get any pussy, are you?"

He glared back. "Hardly."

"Good. Then you won't transfer."

"Wha? But - " and she was in his face again, hissing. "_Listen to me, Takayanagi Masataka. You will _not_ leave Toudou and you will _NOT_ leave the juken club! Most importantly, you will _not _leave _ME! _Wakatta?"_

He met the gaze stonily. "Because you need me."

"Sou. Because I – because the club – needs you." The anger had not burnt completely out of her eyes yet.

_Not because anyone wants me_, he didn't say. Instead he said, "Wakatta," and rose quickly. "I'd better be getting home."

Maya bounced to her feet. "Takayanagi... go home and get some sleep. Tomorrow'll be better."

He stared down at her. What good was her word about that? Still, he nodded, almost unaware of her as he walked to the door and exchanged slippers for sandals. He gave her a bow just a few degrees more polite than curtness and opened the door, shuddering slightly at the February night chill.

"Takayanagi?"

He turned to look at her. She was in her normal, full-grown form, silvery hair slightly alive in the breeze. In some ways, she seemed more goddess-like than Aya. Her expression was serious as she spoke. "Tomorrow'll be better, Takayanagi. I'm sure of it. Go home and sleep."

He blinked and nodded, mumbling "Oyasumi" as he stepped through the door.

* * *

"_Tomorrow'll be better, Takayanagi."_

Takayanagi had been lucky enough to get home when no one else was, and thus avoid questions. Even though there was nothing wrong with what he'd been doing – _heaven forbid that a martial artist cease training in his spare time,_ he thougbt sourly – he wasn't in a mood to talk to anyone, particularly Mitsuomi-nii, tonight.

"_Tomorrow'll be better, Takayanagi."_

"Mou, how do you even _know_? Baka taichou... baka Maya-san..." He poured himself a double and swigged it, following that with another double. A warm, relaxing   
sensation started spreading through him, and he replaced the bottle in its hiding place. He flopped down on the bed and stretched, yawning, his battered body already pulling him towards slumber.

"_Baka! Of course the club needs you!"_

"Need, huh..." At times that was almost a curse, he thought. To be needed meant that you were useful, to be discarded when you weren't anymore. To be wanted or loved meant to be kept around whether you were useful or not. "I'm needed. Am I wanted?" He didn't dare wonder about the other word as he stared at the ceiling.

"_You will _not _leave Toudou and you will _NOT_ leave the juken club! Most importantly, you will _not _leave _ME_!" _

_That was one helluva reaction from her, though, _he thought. _Almost like she had some more personal stake in keeping me around... well, that's easy enough to explain. I guess we're friends, more or less. Even if not, sometimes I think she understands me better than anyone else at Toudo. _

_Even – especially – Mitsuomi-nii._

"_Because I – because the club – needs you."_

_Which brings me back to "need" again... mou ii, that's _enough_ for tonight, Masataka! Something, no matter how stupid or pathetic, is better than nothing at all! Now, lay down and get some fucking sleep. _ He forced himself to sit up enough to kill the lamp and flopped back down, his eyelids closing even as his head hit the pillow.

"_Tomorrow'll be better, Takayanagi."_

_Maa, ii ka,_ came his last thought of the night. _If you say so, Maya-san...

* * *

_

Maya was sipping tea when she heard the front door open and close, and Aya's voice call out "Tadaima!" A moment later, her head poked into the doorway. "Onee-chan?"

"Hai, hai." Maya tossed off the dregs in the cup and set it down, turning to look at her. "Worn Nagi down yet?"

"He's just playing hard to get." Aya's tone was all breezy self-assurance, but her eyes darted from side to side. "Ano... did Takayanagi-sempai go home already?"

Maya rolled her eyes and pushed to her feet. "Yes, Aya, Takayanagi went home around 8."

"Good." Aya entered the living room and plopped her rump onto the floor, skirt lifting just enough to show white panty before settling. She peered at Maya, her eyes narrowed in scrutinization. "That's quite a mouse he hung on you."

Maya smiled a predatory smile and reached up, touching it gingerly. "Sou."

Aya made a face and grabbed a cookie from the bowl on the table. "How big an opening did you leave him?"

"No larger than the ones I leave you."

Aya's brow furrowed. "You leave me openings?"

Maya just smiled and padded towards the kitchen.

"Mataku... onee-chan, I don't see what you see in Takayanagi-sempai." Aya's tone had shifted towards seriousness, and Maya knew exactly what was going unsaid. She turned back towards her, empty cup in hand, possible responses going through her head, loudest of all: _Takayanagi – iya, Masataka – isn't Mitsuomi, isn't much like him. And for the most part, that's a good thing..._ His face flitted through her mind, and she actually had to work to suppress a faint blush.

What she said was, "What makes you chase after Nagi... that's what I've got for Takayanagi. More or less." And that was truth too, more or less.

Aya smirked, her eyes showing that she was setting the unspoken topic aside for now. "Oh, then will you be chasing him through the halls, calling him... him... what _is_ his given name, anyway?"

"Masataka."

Aya raised an eyebrow, and Maya decided not to ask why. "I see. Well, then... 'Masataka-sama, Masataka-sama'... it doesn't have the same ring as 'Seiichirou-sama'."

"Says you." Maya turned her attention back towards the sink.

"Well, I guess it must to you. This is the longest I've seen you in your normal form for awhile now. Did you tell him tonight?" Aya carried the now-empty snack bowl into the kitchen.

"I'll tell him tomorrow."

Aya stared at her. "You let him get through your defenses, and then you decide to wait till _tomorrow_ to tell him he's your fiance!"

Maya shrugged and smiled, reaching up to touch the black eye. "A love confession, on Valentine's Day? Sure, _that's_ never been done before. No, tomorrow's soon enough."

"What, are you gonna go normal on him and shove his face into your breasts?"

"If you can keep the others out of the clubhouse long enough, I just might." Maya laughed and strode past her. "Oyasumi, Aya."

"Oyasumi, onee-chan." Maya heard the fridge opening as she left the kitchen, and walked towards her room, closing the door behind her. She lay back on the bed, turning over as she did, and reached for the light switch. The last thing she saw before the room went dark was the photo of the juken club on the nightstand, and Takayanagi's – _iya, Masataka's_ – face, smiling, with her in chibi form perched on her shoulder. Her last words to him – _Takayanagi, tomorrow'll be better. I'm sure of it. - _floated through her mind, and she fixed his face in her mind's eye.

She smiled in the darkness. _You're mine, Takayanagi Masataka. And from tomorrow on, I'll never let you doubt it.

* * *

_

Yes, I know. Unabashed MayaTaka, probably at least a little OOC. Apologies to anyone this squicks; it's just a pairing that made sense to me when I read the manga.


End file.
